membership-join-usShopping for a WordPress membership plugin is like buying a personal computer. You know what core features / specs to look for (processor speed, RAM, HDD capacity). But at the same time, you want the bells and whistles to suit your needs whether it’s for gaming, office work, or graphics design.

Just about every membership plugin can restrict access to content and take payments. After all, that’s what they’re built for. But chances are you want a plugin that goes beyond the bare minimum. MemberPress is one of the latest membership plugins in the market that promises to go beyond the basics and turn your WP blog to the membership site you’ve always wanted it to be.

Quick Background About MemberPress

The offer is simple: A WP membership plugin that lets you build a robust membership site where you can…

  • Control access to your content
  • Securely sell your digital products (e-books, video courses, DLCs, etc.)
  • And accept payments

membership-mattersMemberPress was developed by the same brains behind Affiliate Royale and Pretty Links PRO, which is one of the best URL shorteners and link-cloaking plugins around. But while the plugin was backed and developed by an experienced team of PHP coders, it isn’t the first WP membership plugin around. Before MemberPress, there’s Magic Members, Paid Memberships PRO, Restrict Content PRO, and many more…and there’s a lot to learn from these older plugins as far as improvements go.

Pricing

As far as pricing goes, MemberPress has kept it simple and straight to the point. There are only 2 tiers / pricing plans to choose from:

  • Business Edition ($99) – This tier lets you install MemberPress on one site; take on as many members as you like; offer unlimited digital products; protect and drip your content; get a year’s worth of updates and support; and many MORE.
  • Developer Edition ($199) – This option has all of the niceties included in the Business Edition…PLUS some more like support and updates for as many sites as you want; integration with Authorize.Net; and 1-year PRIORITY support.

MemberPress Features I LOVE

  • Payment Gateway Integration: The plugin supports 3 payment gateways – all of which enjoy a huge following. MemberPress supports PayPal (the most popular payment processor), Authorize.Net, and Stripe (used by companies like Rackspace, Foursquare, and HubSpot).
  • Detailed User Configurations: Your paid members are the lifeblood of your membership site. What you choose to show and NOT show to them can play a large role in your site’s profitability. In this regard, MemberPress has learned a lot from everyone else. In the plugin’s Account tab, you can configure the user experience according to your liking – from customizing the “Welcome” page; disabling access to the WP dashboard and admin bar; to adding custom user information fields; and many more.
  • Product Groups: Let’s say you offer 2 6-pack abs courses – both have the same content but have different presentations and pricing. Maybe you want to add 3 hours of consultation and downloadable videos on the more expensive package. If you’re taking this route, MemberPress’ Product Groups lets you do just that with minimal effort. To make it eve sweeter, the Product Groups saves you more time by automatically create a pricing page.
  • Content Dripping: Just imagine publishing a 3-month golf training video course on your membership site, which could easily bring $100/month per member ($300 in total). If you don’t drip your content and make everything accessible in one go, you’d make it very easy for people to rip you off – sign up for your course; log in to your site; download all of your content; and ask for a refund. With MemberPress’ content dripping feature, you can deliver your content on a pre-defined schedule and it’s very easy to set up.

For more video tutorial on Getting Started With MemberPress for WordPress – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQ0_Eexoqus